The Commission on Elections (Comelec) recently opened the public bidding for the supply and delivery of official ballot packaging despite the controversy that comes with it.

In its invitation to bidders, up for grabs is a complete set of bidding documents for the P291.58-million project, the Comelec—Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) said.

“A complete set of bidding documents may be purchased by interested bidders from October 31 to November 21 . . . in the amount of P50,000,” SBAC Chairman Helen Flores said.

The documents can be purchased at the SBAC Secretariat Office, 7th Floor Palacio del Gobernador Bldg., Gen. Luna cor. Postigo St. in Intramuros, Manila, the submission of bids shall be on November 21 on or before 9 a.m. at the SBAC Secretariat Office, while the Opening of Bids shall be on the same day at 10 a.m. at the Bureau of the Treasury Convention Hall, 3rd Floor, of the same building.

The SBAC noted that the bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Government Procurement Reform Act or the Republic Act 9184.

However, the bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorship, partnerships, or organizations with at least 60 percent interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

The bidding comes after two losing bidders are protesting the National Printing Office’s (NPO) decision to award the P780-million contract to supply and print the 55 million official ballots for the upcoming elections to Holy Family Printing Corp. and its partner, Canon Marketing Philippines.

The protests of Smartmatic-Total Information Management and a consortium, led by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. or PLDT, stemmed from the alleged favoring of the NPO to the winning bidder even some of its ballots were not functioning well with the Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS machines.